RED RIBBON WEEK BRINGS ALCOHOL AND DRUG AWARENESS

Plainfield High School

PLAINFIELD -- Addiction counselor Claudia Evenson promised the high
school students she wasn't there to give a lecture on how bad weed was
or how alcohol will make them go blind.

Instead she wanted to show them the different roles one plays at a
party.

"I need a girl who will be willing to have a party," Evenson said, who
spoke to junior health classes Friday at Plainfield High School
Central Campus as part of Red Ribbon week, a national event advocating
a drug-free life.

"This is Patti and she's going to have a party," Evenson said as the
young woman, not her real name, stood in front of the class. "What
does Patti have to do?"

"Send out invitations. Put it on Myspace, Scream down the hallway,"
Patti said. "Find a friend who is 21 to get some beer" a student shouts.

Are your parents home? Evenson asked.

"Of course not," said Patti who added that they would be gone for the
weekend.

"What kind of weed do you bring to the party?" Evenson
asked.

"Dro," a boy said about a high-quality marijuana.

"What kind of alcohol will be at the party?" she asked.

Students yell out Smirnoff vodka and beer. A student who will bring
the booze stands next to the student who brought the drug
paraphernalia.

"This isn't really how you organize a party," Evenson said. "Half the
kids you might know. The other half you don't know."

"Who will really get drunk?"

A girl volunteers and stands next to Patti and holds a plastic
cup.

"This is Sheila. She likes to drink. She has been drinking 1 1/2
years," Evenson said. "She started the summer after eighth grade. She
has developed a tolerance."

Students said they would put ecstasy, oxycontin, zantac, vicodin and
other pills in a bowl. They call this "trail mix." They drink and take
a pill -- not knowing what it is.

Sheila, who is drunk, starts hitting people.

"What do you want to do to help her?" Evenson asked.

Students offer suggestions, such as slapping her, giving her a cold
shower, a glass of water or a cup of coffee.

Evenson said the cold shower and coffee won't help her get sober --
that's a myth. And, water will only make her cold.

A student suggests sleeping pills to get her to sleep, but Evenson
says that's a bad idea.

The student who was called the "responsible one" because he wasn't
drinking decides to have her sleep it off and takes away her glass of
beer.

The party continues.

Evenson asks, "Do you think anyone thinks about the drunken
girl?"

"No, we are all drinking," a student shouts.

The responsible student has someone check on her. Sheila is barely
breathing.

"What do you want to do about this, Patti? It's your party," Evenson
asks.

"Get her out of the house," Patti said.

Other students shout, "Take her to the Dumpster."

"How about drop her off, ring the door bell and run!" a boy
said.

Someone says to call 911. But the students say they will get busted if
they call the police.

"Even the girl who is drunk said don't call 911," Evenson said. "We
have been discussing this for 15 to 20 minutes. We can't even decide
and none of us are drunk. By now, she can be dead or in a comma."

The joking and laughing has stopped. The responsible student says,
"I'm not drinking. I'm calling 911."

All the students say they would run leaving Patti all alone with
Sheila.

The paramedics come and take Sheila to the emergency room. And, she is
eventually transferred to a nursing home because she is in a coma.

"Aren't nursing homes for old people," a student asks.

Health teacher Delle West said she had a student who went into a coma
for the same reasons as Sheila. He stayed in a nursing home for 15
years before he died.

The police interview Patti. "Are you going to nark?" Evenson asked.
Patti says yes. She gets a ticket, a suspension and perhaps will be
expelled. Patti is lonely because her friends are mad that she told on
them.

"Who let this girl get into a coma?" Evenson asks. "Do you know about
the new law?"

A new law increased penalties for adults who knowingly or unknowingly
have underage drinking in their residences, she said. Recently, a
father in Deerfield had to spend two weeks in jail for allowing teens
to drink at a party at their home, resulting in a fatal car accident.

"Are your parents willing to spend two weeks in jail?" Evenson asked.
"Will they be mad if they lose their jobs? Will they be mad if their
faces are all over Channel 7 News because you decided to have a party
when they were not home?"

Evenson turns to Sheila who is laying on the floor pretending to be in
a coma.

"How would you feel if your friends in this class put you in a
Dumpster?"

"I would want to kill them," she said.

A student asks, "Why would you get mad when you are the one who put
yourself in that position?"

"What about a person who is chemically dependent?" Evenson
asked.

A student could have started experimenting with drinking, and later
with marijuana, thinking they could stop anytime. Six months later, a
teen can be addicted.

"Who is the accomplice to this tragedy?" Evenson asked.

She tells them they all are because they brought the booze, the drugs,
etc. They all had a role.

"I want you to be in touch with feelings you might be experiencing,"
she said. "You abandon Patti. Sheila's in a coma."

Evenson asks if they go to a party with booze and drugs, do they have
the courage to leave. Only two students raise their hands.

"What are some of the reasons you don't leave?" Evenson
asked.

"Trying to be cool," a boy said.

"Maybe, we can find other ways to be cool," Evenson
said.

She suggests telling friends that their parents will test their urine
when they get home.

A student asks can a person really go into a coma.

Their teacher tells them her story between tears.

"My son took one pill. He went to bed and he died in his sleep," she
said about her son, Doni, who died at age 17 after drinking. "You have
to be careful about your decisions, please. ... You are all too precious."

Between classes, Evenson, who works at Rose Crance in Naperville, said
if she could just reach one student with her talk, then she made a
difference.

After a class a young woman approaches West.

She breaks down and starts crying. West hugs her and puts her arm
around the student and takes her to social worker Anne Comer.

"She lives around (drinking and drugs) day and night," Watson said to
Comer.

Evenson gives the girl her business card before Comer takes the
student to her office.

"You call me," Evenson said. "It doesn't cost anything to call me.
Call me."